Rescue Dog Yuri Wins Cannes Palm Dog as Lola Takes Jury Prize

Overview

• Yuri, a rescue dog at the center of Dominga Sotomayor’s La Perra, won the main Palm Dog at the Cannes beach ceremony on Friday and Sotomayor accepted the embossed collar in person.
• Producers and local trainers say Yuri was sourced from Mirada Animal Chile and prepared in pre-production through an adoption and training collaboration involving PLANTA and trainers Nicolás Carrillo and Marcela Carrasco.
• The puppy incarnation of Yuri was played by Tormenta María, a rescue adopted by a member of the film’s production team, and producers say Yuri now lives with a new family after filming wrapped.
• Clio Barnard’s Lola won the Palm Dog Jury Prize and Barnard attended with Soprano, a local lookalike stand-in that follows the Palm Dog tradition of using substitutes when the filmed animal cannot travel to Cannes.
• The Palm Dog, founded by film journalist Toby Rose in 2001, has grown from a cheeky sideshow into a recognized Cannes fixture and this year reinforced a theme of female directors using rescued dogs as central, emotional characters.